Go Get Cultured!

Will your life be impacted by other countries?
Do you want to be a productive citizen in today's global world?
Do you own any products from China?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions- and you better have- then you should study abroad with UNA!!

Today my class's speaker was Dr. Chunsheng Zhang, the Vice Provost of International Programs. He encouraged my class to study abroad while attending UNA. Studying abroad is a great program, and it sounds like a lot of fun. Communication is the most important trait for a person to have when working in a global world, as we are today. People need to communicate effectively and in a culturally sensitive way. And what's a better way to do that then go study in some really crazy, awesome country?!

We also had some older, wiser honors kids talk to us about their study abroad experiences. I learned that if and when I study abroad, I need to immerse myself in the culture and try anything when given the opportunity. And don't believe all stereotypes, such as British food tasting awful... Fun fact: Fish and chips is like a glorified Captain D's meal. And if all else fails, go to China and find a McDonald's, there's about a bajillion of them. Except I'm totally kidding because immersing yourself in the culture would not involve eating McDonald's for every meal.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go to Australia. How cool would that be?? Swimming in the Great Barrier Reef would probably be the best experience in my life. But I'm pretty sure UNA doesn't have any science study abroad opportunities, so I'm going to have to figure out something else, maybe literature.

So add Study Abroad to your list of things to ponder. Yay for other cultures!

Helen Keller Always Wins

Currently I am living in the wonderful city of Florence, AL aka Helen Keller's birthplace. Hopefully you are already aware that when playing Apples to Apples (aka the coolest game on the face of the planet) that the Helen Keller card always wins. What you might not know is why. Well, it's because she's awesome. Why is that, you ask? Cause she's Helen freakin Keller!! If that doesn't answer your question, here's the low-down on Helen Keller: Helen Keller was deaf and blind, but still learned how to write and speak and even graduated from college. She dedicated her life to improving the conditions of blind and the deaf-blind around the world. But what I appreciate most of Helen Keller is her perspective on life.

"What a shame is is to have sight, but to have no vision." ~Helen Keller

As students in the Honors Program, my class is encouraged to be the best leaders we can be. But what is the definition of a leader? Trustworthy, honest, encouraging, exciting, creative, respected... Those are all the easy answers, but what about risky? A leader is someone who can think outside of the box and do something that might not be popular. A leader can make a decision that others might not like, but that might improve the future of those being affected by the decision. A leader isn't afraid to make an unpopular decision. A leader has a vision for the future.

Vision. It gives you a purpose. It drives you. It gives you a goal to work towards. Don't be afraid to go against the grain, don't just agree with everyone. Be your own person and be able to defend your beliefs. Be able to defend the ideas that make you, you. Be the Helen Keller card- always win.

Speaking of winning: Here is Helen Keller's theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VigbSoo0FEY

What's Your Purpose?

Our last speaker was Mr. William Lee, a commercial farmer in the Florence area. He owns and operates his own 3,000 acre farm, where he grows cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat with only 5 employees, including himself.

Mr. Lee graduated from Auburn University, and didn't have a specific career goal throughout college. In his mid 20's, he decided to try the family farming company and then change his mind later if he didn't love it. Some people would say that college isn't important if you're planning on doing farming, but Mr. Lee said, "I wouldn't enjoy what I'm doing today if I wasn't educated."

For any college student, these are comforting words. A lot of students in college have absolutely no idea what they want to do for the rest of their lives, many doubt their plans and will change their major a thousand times, and some don't know if they even want to go to college in the first place. But we can all learn from Mr. Lee. Not knowing what you want to do is life. We don't know our future, we don't know our path, we might not even know exactly where we're standing right now, but that's okay. College is about experience, it's about education, it's about finding yourself. Take some crazy class, try a major, change your major.

But more important than the classes you take, the major you choose, and the career path you take, find a purpose for yourself in what you do. Mr. Lee told us that his goal was to leave his land in better shape than how he found it. We are given gifts and resources to use everyday, and we should make it our goal to be good stewards of these resources so that they can be used by future generations. So don't worry about your future, just know your purpose. Be rewarded in knowing your purpose, even if you don't know your path or future.

Fun with Liquid Nitrogen

Dr. Mike Moeller opened our class with a demonstration of using liquid nitrogen to freeze and reanimate flesh. He put a laytex glove on, and then added one more glove over that for good measure. He then put his index finger in the liquid nitrogen. When it was good an frozen, he proceeded to take a hammer to his finger to reanimate it. Chips of things came flying off of his hand and soon after my class was done freaking out, Dr. Moeller explained to us that the trick of this experiment is to freeze a hot dog and not your finger.

Which brings me to the point of this blog... Values in science. Most speakers come to our class and use morals and values interchangably, but science is where this would be inaccurate. Morals are chosen by an individual, but scientific values are universal. Science values facts. Science values precision, accuracy, testability, controlled and unbiased observation, peer review, repeatability and statistical analysis. Science values confirmation of predictions and simplicity in explainations.

At first thought, simplicity in explainations as a scientific value sounds very incorrect. Science is hard and there's nothing simple about it. For example, during my last biology class, my professor explained Photosynthesis.

The redox reactions among Q2, pheophytin, plastoquinone, cytochrome, plastocyanin, ferredoxin, and flavoprotein in Photosystems of Photo Phosphorylation Non-Cyclic and Cyclic Light reactions of Photosynthesis allows for an electron to move to make ADP into ATP (whichis known as phosphorylation) and NADPH, which are then used in the Dark Cycle to produce C6H12O6 aka Glucose.

And that was only the first 5 minutes of class. It's just not a simple explaination. But the simplicity in science is the repeatability of statistics. Simplicity is Occam's Razor, the rule that if there is one explaination in science that can equally satisfy a set of observations, scientists tenatively adopt the simplest explanation. This long explaination is better than saying some magical photosynthesis fairies make the plants grow. The simplicity of science is the use of logic to prove an explaination. Simplicity is unbiased, repeated observation that can be used in the future to discover new scientific breakthroughs. Simplicity is this proven pathway in Photosynthesis. Simplicity is freezing a hot dog in liquid nitrogen and not your actual finger. Simplicity is science and what it proves in our daily lives.